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MAC Formatted HDD and Panasonic Viera TVs...? HELP!!

S

sullen

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 5, 2010
17
0
I have a 2012 or 2013 Panasonic Viera TV.

I had/have an older WD External Hard Drive, the TV read it just fine...
I believe it is a windows formatted drive though, and I have that old app that lets you write to windows drives, i forget the name of it....

Whenever I plugged this drive into the TVs USB, I was able to use the media player on the TV, and play audio and video files stored on the drive.

Anyway, I just got a new WD My Book Studio. It's the USB2/Firewire model (one model previous to the USB3 studio drives currently on the market) and is formatted for mac.

It works fine, but when I plug it into the TV, and open up the media player, it is not seeing the drive.

Anyone know what the story is with this?
Do Panasonic TVs not read OSX Formatted HDDs??
 
GGJstudios

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,545
943
sullen said:
Do Panasonic TVs not read OSX Formatted HDDs??
Click to expand...
My guess is they don't. I'd guess they require NTFS or FAT32 formatted drives. Here's a recap of various formats that may be helpful.

Format A Hard Drive Using Disk Utility (which is in your /Applications/Utilities folder)
​
Choose the appropriate format:
​
HFS+ (Hierarchical File System, a.k.a. Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Don't use case-sensitive) NTFS (Windows NT File System)
  • Read/Write NTFS from native Windows.
  • Read only NTFS from native Mac OS X [*]To Read/Write/Format NTFS from Mac OS X, here are some alternatives:
    • For Mac OS X 10.4 or later (32 or 64-bit), install Paragon (approx $20) (Best Choice for Lion and later)
    • For 32-bit Mac OS X, install NTFS-3G for Mac OS X (free) (does not work in 64-bit mode)
    • For 64-bit Snow Leopard, read this: MacFUSE for 64-bit Snow Leopard
    • Some have reported problems using Tuxera (approx $36).
    • Native NTFS support can be enabled in Snow Leopard and Lion, but is not advisable, due to instability.
  • AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support NTFS
  • Maximum file size: 16 TB
  • Maximum volume size: 256TB
  • You can use this format if you routinely share a drive with multiple Windows systems.
exFAT (FAT64)
  • Supported in Mac OS X only in 10.6.5 or later.
  • Not all Windows versions support exFAT. See disadvantages.
  • exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table)
  • AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support exFAT
  • Maximum file size: 16 EiB
  • Maximum volume size: 64 ZiB
  • You can use this format if it is supported by all computers with which you intend to share the drive. See "disadvantages" for details.
FAT32 (File Allocation Table)
  • Read/Write FAT32 from both native Windows and native Mac OS X. [*]Maximum file size: 4GB.
  • Maximum volume size: 2TB
  • You can use this format if you share the drive between Mac OS X and Windows computers and have no files larger than 4GB.
 
S

sullen

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 5, 2010
17
0
GGJstudios said:
My guess is they don't. I'd guess they require NTFS or FAT32 formatted drives. Here's a recap of various formats that may be helpful.

Format A Hard Drive Using Disk Utility (which is in your /Applications/Utilities folder)
​
Choose the appropriate format:
​
HFS+ (Hierarchical File System, a.k.a. Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Don't use case-sensitive) NTFS (Windows NT File System)
  • Read/Write NTFS from native Windows.
  • Read only NTFS from native Mac OS X [*]To Read/Write/Format NTFS from Mac OS X, here are some alternatives:
    • For Mac OS X 10.4 or later (32 or 64-bit), install Paragon (approx $20) (Best Choice for Lion and later)
    • For 32-bit Mac OS X, install NTFS-3G for Mac OS X (free) (does not work in 64-bit mode)
    • For 64-bit Snow Leopard, read this: MacFUSE for 64-bit Snow Leopard
    • Some have reported problems using Tuxera (approx $36).
    • Native NTFS support can be enabled in Snow Leopard and Lion, but is not advisable, due to instability.
  • AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support NTFS
  • Maximum file size: 16 TB
  • Maximum volume size: 256TB
  • You can use this format if you routinely share a drive with multiple Windows systems.
exFAT (FAT64)
  • Supported in Mac OS X only in 10.6.5 or later.
  • Not all Windows versions support exFAT. See disadvantages.
  • exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table)
  • AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support exFAT
  • Maximum file size: 16 EiB
  • Maximum volume size: 64 ZiB
  • You can use this format if it is supported by all computers with which you intend to share the drive. See "disadvantages" for details.
FAT32 (File Allocation Table)
  • Read/Write FAT32 from both native Windows and native Mac OS X. [*]Maximum file size: 4GB.
  • Maximum volume size: 2TB
  • You can use this format if you share the drive between Mac OS X and Windows computers and have no files larger than 4GB.
Click to expand...

Damnit.

The old one is NTFS

And the new one is HFS+ ( says: Mac OS Extended (Journaled))

I am on Mountain Lion.

Tuxera is the app that I use(d), but one day it stopped working and I actually haven't had full access to that drive in a while...
I was going to wipe clean the old drive and format it the same as this.

I guess my only option keeping them both compatible with the the mac and the tv is to confirm FAT32 works and format them both with that right??
 
S

sullen

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 5, 2010
17
0
priitv8 said:
If the Viera is from 2012/2013 it might also support exFAT.
Click to expand...

Yeah it's a 2012 UT50....
Can't find a damn thing regarding this on Panasonic's website or via extensive googling.

Called their tech support, figured it would be a quick way to get an answer, and the automated said "they're not taking calls at this time" once i got through all the 5mins of automations to the point where you get switched over to a CSR.

Will have to try it later and see what formats it reads....
I don't like having the 4gb limit with FAT32....

Apple, make a TV please~!
 
sjinsjca

sjinsjca

macrumors 68020
Oct 30, 2008
2,238
555
You can give up on Panasonic. They are getting out of the plasma TV business. Rather a pity-- we have one, and it's very nice. Seems the world is doomed to a future of LCDs with their poor black levels and dynamic range.

Meanwhile I've found our Panasonic TV's USB port to have very limited compatibility and functionality. Mine won't read any of several Linux formats either.

I'd advise treating it as a glorified display and setting up a media center of some sort. If you're using Mac-formatted drives, then that would argue for using a Mac as a media center. Or, maybe you can cobble something up with an Airport Extreme or Time Capsule-- both are absolutely awesome, and both will automatically back up your Macs too... to alternating backup drives, if you're smart, and you can connect a pile of 'em via a little powered USB hub. (Though I have a 1-generation-old Time Capsule I love, I'd actually prefer the Extreme now since any backup or streaming drives are external, and when one dies--a question of when, not if--it won't mean screwing around with the entire router.)
 
H

hpattni

macrumors newbie
Mar 31, 2015
1
0
exFAT could be the answer

I used disk utility to format the flash drive to exFAT, now plays a 16gb video file on my Panasonic AS500

Hope this helps
 
zorinlynx

zorinlynx

macrumors G3
May 31, 2007
8,165
17,638
Florida, USA
hpattni said:
I used disk utility to format the flash drive to exFAT, now plays a 16gb video file on my Panasonic AS500

Hope this helps
Click to expand...

Yeah, ExFAT is the closest thing we have to a "universal filesystem that doesn't completely suck" right now.

OS X: Full support.
Windows XP and newer: Full support.
Linux: Full support with an add-on module.

Also most embedded devices in the last few years support it.

I wish Microsoft wasn't an ass about demanding patent money for it, but I guess we can't have everything.
 
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